Great Power, Great Responsibility, Comes With, Etc.

The only reason you guys have a comic this week is because of the amazingly top-notch dudes over at the Harbinger podcast, specifically the Dude Von Doom and Captain Man. I’ve been through apartment-hunting hell the past two weeks and have had barely any time for drawing, so these guys not only came over to my house and packed my crap today, but also hauled it to my new place so I could use the afternoon to make the strip. It doesn’t get much more best bros forever than that, I gotta say. (and if you check out the most recent episode you can listen to me ramble about Dragon age and Robocop with them while we eat cake)

So yeah, this week’s strip comes compliments of some five years of experience as a Manitoba Hydro summer student grunt. I tell ya, you haven’t lived until you’ve experienced the raw destructive power of a pressure washer (probably something that no teenager should be trusted with, but I guess the alternative was making the Hydro guys wash their own cars)

“She weighs fifteen-point-five kilograms loaded and fires high-pressure dihydrogen monoxide at one hundred liters per minute. It costs roughly one cent in water bills to fire this weapon…for twelve seconds.“

Holy crap, that’d be awesome! Water mini-guns, snipers, shotguns… I’m not really sure what the pyro replacement could be. I’ve thought of boiling water, but part of the reason we have super soakers is so kids don’t get injured…

Had one. It’s big, intimidating, and drenching. It’s also heavy as hell, has absurdly low ammo (ie: shoot time), and is almost useless except for point defense with a running hose – and the hose is lighter.

Hurr, pressure washers makes it manlier – no matter what it is you’re doing >w>

Personally I use it to weed the stone tiled terrace behind my parents house for extra cash in the summer :P
Never tried to stock the fridge with it though… wonder if I could try it as some kind of post-teenage prank? I wasn’t much of a proper teenager when I was a teenager so I need to catch up on a few things…

I did realize after I drew it that they have a song like that, but this strip was entirely based on my own experiences as a Hydro grunt with a similar list of chores to do and a pressure washer. I’ll concede that I stopped at pulling weeds with it when I realized I probably wouldn’t be working there much longer if I didn’t check myself.

Honestly, it would probably be arrogant of me to assume I’m the only person who has ever come up with this joke. It probably goes through everyone’s head the first time they use one of those things. As soon as they tell yo “this can clean cars but be careful because you could kill your friend if you dick around with it” you bring the whole situation to the next level.

You’re not the only person who’s ever come up with it, but that’s what makes it so funny! I’m sure anyone with even a little bit of mischief in them thinks about these things. There’s this bit in a cyberpunk novel (Snow Crash? Virtual Light?) where the character lost his job blast-cleaning buildings because he and his friend turned the hoses on each other. And closer to reality, Dave Barry made a joke like this about a small flamethrower designed for killing weeds, and also about some mild criminal case where two guys with leaf blowers kept blowing their own leaves into the other guys’ lawn, and eventually ended up aiming the blowers at each other in some sort of leaf rage duel.

Ahhhh th’ pressure washer. Poor Jared wasn’t ready for such responsibility, and Th’ Commander probably should’ve seen it from a mile off.

I don’t blame him, though. When first my mom blessed me with access to our pressure washer, I did almost the same thing. True story. When you’re a man with a hammer, I guess, everything starts to look like a nail. Also, for a guy who makes ‘scowling’ his default facial expression I doubt I’ve ever seen The Commander grimmer than in the second panel.

Power washers are awesome. When I was in high school, I cleaned stables at my after school job. The power washers made cleaning a snap- concrete floors and wooden walls went from dingy gray to bright white in seconds! I need to rent one to clean my gutters…they look so dingy lately.

I can vouch that youngsters should not use this as a toy. My younger cousin thought that it would be fun to use a pressure washer to enscribe his name in a seawall… until his older brother appended “is gay” to the end. :P

At least there the water might have done less damage? Would’ve been harder depending on how the door to the washer opened and then the dryer would’ve been negated… XD That’s if he was actually supposed to go through the whole process anyway. Might have been more like “put them in this chute” or “this basket” and leave it for the person being paid to do the laundry (which, probably not realistic to pay someone just to wash things for the company but it depends on how much laundry they get, I guess.)

I’ve moved several times in the past twelve years and I know what a pain it is. And no matter how much I actually prepared in advance it always seemed like several things had to be done at the last minute so it always took all day for us. (Then again, me and everyone I ever roomed with were slobs so it was our own fault but STILL…)

Those are some really awesome friends of yours! Hold on tight and never let go of ’em. (Hopefully they won’t try to get away but, on the off-chance they do, put down some snares or something. Keep them at any cost! Don’t let their terrified confusion deter you. They mustn’t escape!) XD

And the comic shows I’ve really been missing out. I need to borrow one of those things for a day.

Worked briefly in a car sellers washing the cars and getting them ready for the show room. I accidentally broke through the layer of that enamel-type coating. Luckily, nobody noticed until it was sold.

I remember first discovering the power of the pressure washer. I felt there was nothing in the world I couldn’t clean. Unfortunately, curiosity got the best of me, and against the recommendations of the safety manual, I put my finger in the spray on a high setting.

Well, actually it wasn’t that bad, but I did have a small, open sore on my finger for a while.

Hilarious comic. If only they allowed us dishwashers to use those things…
I have to say though, I’m a teensy bit disappointed that the “MOTHERF***ING BOOZE TIME” ad is gone. The past few weeks it’s seemed almost like a small final punchline.

Beautiful and priceless. Also, I’d probably try to weed the lawn with it too, and I’m 40.
I’m glad your move went well! I read some article once which said that the three most stressful events in people’s lives were deaths, marriages, and moving house.

I don’t know why anyone who knows anything at all about drawing would consider it lazy to reuse art that’s for all intents and purposes the exact same, but okay. With the amount of free time I sink into this comic on top of real life commitments like a job and a social life, I don’t think anyone whose opinion I actually care about is going to start accusing me of laziness anytime soon.

Sorry, but when you’re awake for some 36 hours moving shit and drawing comics, your fingers slip when you’re typing on occasion. If you are so absolutely repulsed by it that it makes you physically cringe you probably shouldn’t hang around this site, the nature of making all these things at three in the morning leads to a lot of typos of that nature.

The power of a pressure washer can be attributed to that of a low caliber rifle. They are fun to use unless you’re using them for work. But as everyone knows, if you have to do something it makes it less fun. Kudos to the guys that helped you move. This comic is one of the few things I look forward to during the week. Can’t wait until you incorporate Dragon Age 2 into the comic. I’m done now…

I apologize for being a bit ambiguous. I meant I was done ranting. I’m completely with you on the Qunari thing, though. I think the overhaul they gave them is stupid looking. I’m also not a fan of what they’ve done to the Hurlocs. They kind of look like malnourished, mummified humans in chainmail. Not nearly as scary looking as they once were. I think the aesthetics of Dragon Age 2 are going to be something us die hard fans are going to have to get used to.

Until we see a hornless, “Westernized” Qunari without the warpaint, I’m withholding judgment. It’s simply tough to tell how dramatic their redesign has been without isolating the variables, you know? And although I’m no fan of the new Hurlock look, this was telegraphed a bit with the pale Hurlock Disciples in Awakening, so at least we were eased into the idea.

My biggest issue with the Retconari is how clumsily they’ve handled the whole species revamp this far. If they wanted something that starkly different, I would have preferred they just made a new race. That and everything I’ve seen regarding their art, attire, and what appears to be Qunari architecture seems very standard European fantasy this far despite claims in the first game that they were not a white European culture and more like some kind of Middle-Eastern/Central-American fusion. Obviously all this is speculation and I can’t judge too much until the game is actually out, but I’m bracing for the worst and preparing to see them filed down to a standard whitewashed dime-a-dozen rpg-race-with-horns.

Although preparing for the worst is always wise, Bioware’s really been pretty clever about breathing new life into tired old tropes lately. If they can make ME2‘s Jack into a somewhat interesting and sympathetic character, for Chrissakes, then they can certainly inject a little personality into Scary Dogmatic Demon-Lookin’ Fantasy Race #72, you know?

I’m holding out hope that when we see the Qunari in the context of DA2‘s story, the retcon won’t be the transparent asspull that it looks like right now.

Going off of your mention to the Qunari being a Middle-Eastern/Native American mix was one of the things I enjoyed about them in the first game. Listening to Sten go on and on about the Qun and the Antom and the Beresad just had me yearning to see what they would do with the cultural aspect of the Qunari in the second one. I can see how they would go as far to say that the Qunari we saw in the first one were somewhat “humanized” for lack of a better word. It makes sense because they would fit in better with the people of Ferelden. I would personally love for a little bit of the second game to take place in the Qunari homeland just to see what their actual cities and population look like.

I agree with you MagFlare about Bioware being the kind of company that can spin proverbial straw into gold with character development and back story. I just hope they don’t do like Coela is worried about and turn them into a “generic horned fantasy race.” I’m trembling with rage just at the thought of it.

I’ve been sprayed with one of those. It’s just like having a staple-gun fight. It’s all fun and games until someone’s hit in the head. Then you have to stop because you’re on your knees laughing so hard.

when i read this, i groaned. i expected him to try and shower with it or something, to horrific effect.
and i’m very glad that you didn’t have him flay himself alive with the pressure washer gun!
watching him mangle the agency’s property is much funnier. :D

and on another note, i looked like jared in the 3rd pannel when i saw the manitoba hydro thing…cuz i live in manitoba too, its always so much more fun when you learn that people live/d in the same place as you lol

I’m leaving this comment as a hearty thank you. They say laughter is the best medicine and the chemicals released from the action can even extend your life-span. This comic just gave me an extra year and a half of good health. I’ll send you my insurance information to bill.

Only because the Commander never washes his coffee cups — he just disinfects them with single-malt whiskey now and again. Washing coffee cups destroys the subtlety and complexity of flavor they accumulate over time.

I waited to the very last day (you know, when nobody reads this) to say that I got my share of pressure-washer propelled insanity experience before too, the calling of the powerful machine is greater than even that of The One Ring, no doubt. I kind of “blew off” neat chunk of my skin off my foot’s big toe… Welp, they sure weren’t dirty after that, at least.

And to ask where’s my weekly punchlines-in-the-comments is. That’d be Vorked. I worry.

It’s like hitting Penny-Arcade and not having Tycho post. A very rare few of us actually enjoy reading his unnecessarily elaborate posts and it’s almost half our pull to go there. Now I sad.

Oh, just a last note, if you actually manage to read this, Coelasquid: I believe you mentioned before you were considering a store? Well if you are still considering it or ever get down to it, I’d suggest writing “Woopa Troopa” down somewhere you’ll remember. Wink wink.

(just do clarify – so on one would think we used it as a weapon ( or would think that now :P) –

some stupid Sgt. was trying to clean up somthing small so he held it with his hand while pointing that thing to it…… ( he didnt manage to hold it steady with one hand either (flew up) but he didnt really care for that at that moment)